Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 20 July 2017

World’s plastic waste could bury Manhattan 2 miles deep

By SETH BORENSTEIN sell said. “At some point we will run
AP Science Writer The world still makes more out of room to put it,” she
WASHINGTON (AP) — Indus- concrete and steel than said in an email. “Some
try has made more than 9.1 plastic, but the big differ- may argue we already
billion tons of plastic since ence is that they stay lon- have and now it’s found in
1950 and there’s enough ger in buildings and cars every nook and cranny of
left over to bury Manhat- and degrade better than our oceans.”
tan under more than two plastic, Geyer said. Except Plastic waste in water has
miles of trash, according for what is burned, “all been shown to harm more
to a new cradle-to-grave the plastics that we made than 600 species of marine
global study. since 1950 are still with us,” life, said Nancy Wallace,
Plastics don’t break down he said. marine debris program di-
like other man-made ma- “The fact that it becomes rector for the U.S. National
terials, so three-quarters of waste so quickly and that Oceanic Atmospheric Ad-
the stuff ends up as waste it’s persistent is why it’s pil- ministration. Whales, sea
in landfills, littered on land In this March 12, 2015 file photo, plastic trash is compacted into ing up in the environment,” turtles, dolphins, fish and
and floating in oceans, bales ready for further processing at the waste processing dump said Chelsea Rochman, a sea birds are hurt or killed,
lakes and rivers, according on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus. professor of ecology at the she said.
to the research reported in Associated Press University of Toronto. She “It’s a huge amount of ma-
Wednesday’s journal Sci- They calculated that of the er said his figures are higher wasn’t part of the study but terial that we’re not doing
ence Advances . 9.1 billion tons made, nearly than other calculations be- like other outside experts anything about,” Wallace
“At the current rate, we are 7 billion tons are no longer cause he includes plastics praised it for thoroughness said. “We’re finding plastics
really heading toward a used. Only 9 percent got material woven into fibers and accuracy. everywhere.”q
plastic planet,” said study recycled and another 12 like polyester clothing, in-
lead author Roland Geyer, percent was incinerated, cluding microfiber material.
an industrial ecologist at leaving 5.5 billion tons of An official of a U.S. trade
the University of California, plastic waste on land and group said the plastics
Santa Barbara. “It is some- in water. industry recognizes the
thing we need to pay at- Using the plastics industry problem and is working to
tention to.” own data, Geyer, Jam- increase recycling and re-
The plastics boom started beck and Kara Lavender duce waste.
after World War II, and now Law found that the amount “Plastics are used because
plastics are everywhere. of plastics made and they are efficient, they are
They are used in packag- thrown out is accelerating. cost effective and they do
ing like plastic bottles and In 2015, the world created their jobs,” said Steve Rus-
consumer goods like cell- 448 million tons of plastic — sell, vice president of plas-
phones and refrigerators. more than twice as much tics for the American Chem-
They are in pipes and other as made in 1998. istry Council , an industry
construction material. They China makes the most plas- association that represents
are in cars and clothing, tic, followed by Europe and manufacturers. “And if we
usually as polyester. North America. didn’t have them, the im-
Study co-author Jenna “The growth is astonishing pact on the environment
Jambeck of the University and it doesn’t look like it’s would be worse.”
of Georgia said the world slowing down soon,” Geyer Using alternatives to plas-
first needs to know how said. tics for packaging and
much plastic waste there About 35 percent of the consumer goods such as
is worldwide before it can plastic made is for packag- glass, paper or aluminum
tackle the problem. ing, like water bottles. Gey- requires more energy, Rus-